


The Switch

by Kirbily



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angel Powers, Bamf Chloe, Canon Divergence, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Humor, Lucifer becomes mortal, Sexual Tension, Slow Burn, and omg does he hate it, at Lucifer's expense of course, diverges after s02e10, mysterious entities causing problems, super slow burn here people, switching powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2017-01-23
Packaged: 2018-09-12 08:16:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9063817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kirbily/pseuds/Kirbily
Summary: After a strange incident involving a disembodied voice uttering "As you wish King of Hell," Lucifer finds that he has been turned into a mortal, and Chloe has received his invulnerability. At first Lucifer thinks being human will be a breeze, but quickly he learns that it might be more difficult than he initially thought.And while Maze and Amenadiel go on the hunt for whatever could have caused the switch to happen it becomes clear that while the Devil is out of commission there are other creatures waiting to pounce on his territory. All the while, there may be something very, very wrong with Chloe.





	1. The Voice That Was Heard

**Author's Note:**

> I just want to point out that, as it says in passing during the story, Mama Morningstar has already been returned to Hell in this story, and thanks to his assistance in returning her there, Amenadiel is slowly regaining his powers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: this fic is divergent of the show after the episode "Quid Pro Ho." Lucifer and Chloe have not gotten together yet but trust me... it's gunna happen. But super slowly.

Chloe paced back and forth in the sunlit penthouse, wringing her hands in front of her. She couldn’t help it, she was so anxious she couldn’t stand still. For what seemed like the hundredth time she checked her phone and wondered what could be taking so long.

“It’ll be fine, they’ll be here soon,” Dan assured her from where he stood leaning against the piano, but his words didn’t make her feel any better, especially when she could see how much he was chewing his lip and fiddling with his jacket pockets. He, too, was feeling the pressure.

A ding came from the elevator and her heart, which felt like it had been racing like a race horse, felt a bit of relief. She was already heading towards the lift when the doors opened up and Maze stepped out.

“Hey, I got your message,” Maze began as she saw Chloe coming over. “You sounded freaked out, what’s going on? You look like hell.” She gestured towards Chloe's clothing that was covered in a layer of dirt and grim, with a couple tears here and there.

“Is Amenadiel with you?” Chloe asked quickly. She checked over her roommate’s shoulder to see if her one time lover was following behind.

“What? No, why would he be?” Maze looked around the penthouse and her eyes fell on Dan who gave her a weak wave. “What’s he doing here? And where’s Lucifer?”

“I asked you to bring Amenadiel,” Chloe said instead of answering her.

“Yeah, well, I told him to meet me here,” was the reply. Maze fixed Chloe with a look. “You're acting squirrelly, Decker. What is going on?”

Chloe looked to Dan helplessly, not sure what to say, but he only just shrugged, his face looking just as lost.

“Okay, now I’m getting pissed off,” Maze growled. “Someone had better tell me what the hell is happening or I start throwing punches.”

Just then the elevator chimed and the doors opened again, admitting Amenadiel into the room. Chloe let out a breath of relief and moved towards him.

“Amenadiel, thank God,” she began, “We need your help.”

“Uh, hello to you too,” he said, then took a look at the others in the room. “What’s going on?”

“Just what I’ve been waiting to learn,” Maze said darkly.

Chloe turned back to her roommate and tried to look apologetic. “I’m sorry Maze, but I didn’t know how else to get a hold of him. I figured since you two, well, you know,” she gave a look that implied ‘banged’, “you’d be able to get him here.”

“And just what do I need to be here for?” Amenadiel asked.

“There was an accident,” Chloe replied. 

The words seemed to cut through the room, causing a hush of dread. Both Maze and Amenadiel looked at Chloe questioningly, while the detective looked down at her feet, unable to meet their eyes, and Dan seemed to hold his breath where he stood a little bit away from them.

“Where the hell is Lucifer?” Maze finally demanded, once again looking around the room for her former boss. “Why isn’t he here?”

“He is here.” Dan’s voice was soft, but he didn’t have to speak loudly to be heard.

Maze narrowed her eyes as she took a step towards him. “What was that?”

“Lucifer is here,” Chloe explained weakly. 

Before either Maze or Amenadiel could ask she walked back towards the couch where she had been pacing before. They followed and found that, not visible from the elevator, Lucifer lay on the couch, eyes closed, looking to all the world like he was sleeping despite the disheveled state of his clothing which was dirty and torn like Chloe's.

“What the hell is this? What's wrong with him?” Maze demanded once she saw him. She quickly moved forward and knelt down beside the sofa. “Is this some kind of joke?”

“No joke,” Dan supplied when it was clear Chloe couldn’t bring herself to say anything. He came over to the rest of the group looking over Lucifer. “He’s been like this since the accident, it happened half an hour ago. We’ve tried waking him up but nothing has worked.”

“What happened?” Amenadiel’s voice was low and even, but Chloe could tell there was something brewing behind eyes.

The detective rubbed her hands together, feeling her mouth go dry, but she knew she had to explain. “It was my fault.”

“Chloe, that’s not fair,” Dan began, but Chloe cut him off.

“No, it was,” she said. “He was with me on a case. We were trying to catch a bomber. She had already set off a car bomb, killing two people. She had sent threatening letters to her next victims saying that she would do it again.”

"You better talk faster, Decker," Maze said through gritted teeth. "How did a bomb do this?" 

“I don’t know if it was a bomb,” Chloe admitted, running a nervous hand through her hair. “We tracked the bomber to some private property outside of the city.”

At this point Dan leaned a little forwards and added, “I helped.” Chloe shot him a look that said ‘Really? Now?’ to which Dan gave a sheepish grin and leaned away again.

“Lucifer and I went into a workshop,” she continued, “Dan stayed outside in case she tried to flee. Only the bomber was waiting for us in a room full of explosive ingredients. There was a fight, it all happened so fast-” 

“What. Happened. To Lucfier?” Maze said slowly, enunciating each word in a low voice. She didn’t look at anyone, her eyes glued to the unconscious form on the couch, but you could almost see the anger rolling off her.

“I don’t know, Maze,” Chloe nearly pleaded, “I really don’t. I just know there was a roaring sound and a bright light,”

“The place exploded,” Dan interjected. “I watched from the outside. Half of the building was in flames, but when I went in to find Chloe and Lucifer they were lying in a spot where there was no fire, completely untouched. Chloe was awake, but Lucifer wasn't. The two of us had to drag him out. ”

Chloe nodded, then took a deep breath, preparing to say the hard part. The part that could possibly make everyone in the room think she had gone mad.

“But before Dan found us,” she said slowly, heart beating fast, “when I had just come to, I heard a voice.” She stopped, letting the words hang in the air a bit.

For the first time since she started recounting what happened Amenadiel looked away from Lucifer and examined her face, like he wasn’t sure what to make of what she just said.

“You heard a voice?” Dan asked. “You didn’t say that before.”

“Yeah, well I was in shock,” Chloe replied. “I thought maybe I imagined it but the more I go over that moment in my head, the more I’m sure I really heard it.”

“Well, what did it say?” Even though it was Dan that asked it was Amenadiel that Chloe locked eyes with as she began to speak.

“It said “As you wish King of Hell.”” 

For a moment Amenadiel and Chloe just looked at each other, her eyes pleading for something but his unreadable.

“It must have been the bomber you heard,” Maze muttered from her spot beside the sofa.

“Not possible,” Dan supplied. “She was a charred lump.”

“But you and Lucifer were completely untouched,” Amenadiel said.

Chloe nodded. “We were covered in rubble and pieces of burning building, and Lucifer was unconscious, but other than that completely unscathed.”

“Chloe and I brought Lucifer back here,” Dan finished the story, “She refused to take him to a hospital, instead she called you two here.”

Amenadiel rubbed a hand over his face, suddenly looking very tired. “A hospital wouldn’t do him any good, anyway.”

“No,” Chloe agreed. She stepped closer to Amenadiel. “But you can.”

Maze’s head finally snapped away from Lucifer and stared at Chloe. “What?”

“Yeah, what?” Amenadiel echoed.

“You can heal Lucifer,” Chloe said, feeling confident in her declaration, “because you’re an angel.”

There was a second where the three others stared in disbelief at Chloe while she kept her eyes locked on Amenadiel, a deep feeling in her gut unshakeable.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Dan broke the moment first. He moved towards Chloe looking like he wanted to start checking her over but kept himself from touching her. “Chloe are you okay? Maybe we should have taken both you to the hospital to be checked out.”

“I’m fine, and I’m right.” She stuck her chin out stubbornly. “Aren’t I, Amenadiel?”

The black man tried to give a laugh but it wasn’t very convincing. “An angel? What?”

“Hey, don’t dismiss her like that,” Maze said as she stood up and gave Chloe a nod. “Where’s this coming from, Decker?”

“Lucifer has always said he’s really the Devil,” she replied. “He’s never lied about anything else, so why that? And he does things that no one should be able to do, throw people through plate glass windows and escape locked rooms. Things no human can do.”

Dan groaned. “Oh, come on Chloe.”

She ignored him and spoke to the floor, unable to meet any of their gazes. “I guess I started to believe a long time ago, but I never really wanted to accept it. Because accepting it would mean that Lucifer is really, well, the Devil. The Devil is real, then Hell is real, and all the rest of it.

“And you,” she pointed at Amenadiel, “tried way too hard to convince me that Lucifer was using tricks to do it all. The more you tried to convince me, the more I just felt in my gut what you said was wrong, and the more I believed in Lucifer.”

Maze gave her a small grin of approval. “So what made you finally accept it?”

“That voice,” Chloe said plainly. “The one I heard after the explosion. I didn’t hear it with my ears, I felt like it was inside my head. And not only did a disembodied voice call Lucifer the “King of Hell,” but it didn’t feel human. It wasn’t anything natural, I know in my gut it couldn’t be.”

“I can’t believe what I’m hearing,” Dan muttered. He walked towards the bar at the other end of the penthouse, fully planning on making himself a drink.

Chloe rolled her eyes at his back, but continued. “When we found that Lucifer wouldn’t wake up I was panicked, I didn’t know what we could do for him. But if Lucifer really is the Devil, then his brother,” she nodded towards Amenadiel, “really is an angel. And angels can heal. So you can help him.”

Defeated, Amenadiel gave a long sigh. “Alright, yes, you win. I really am an angel-”

“I knew it,” Chloe uttered with a small shiver of pride.

“Wait, what?” Dan yelled at the same time at the bar.

“-but I can’t help Lucifer,” he continued, ignoring the interruptions. “I imagine my dear brother never told you that I have fallen. I no longer have any of my powers.”

“What, no,” Chloe said, fear and worry suddenly rushing back over her like waves. “You have to.”

Amenadiel gave a sad shake of his head and looked down at his older brother. “I wish I could help Chloe, but I just don’t have the power.”

Desperation on her face she turned to Maze, her voice pleading. “You’re really a demon, right Maze? There has to be something you can do.”

“Well, thanks for coming to me first,” her roommate said a bit snippy, “but demons aren’t really known for their healing properties.”

Chloe felt like she was going to be overwhelmed with helplessness. She turned to look down at Lucifer, lying on the couch, his face soft and relaxed, looking almost angelic. Chloe sank down onto her knees and leaned over her partner’s unconscious form.

“Oh Lucifer,” she uttered, taking one of his hands in her own. “I am so, so sorry.”

Maze and Amenadiel stood over the two of them, taking in the scene. The leather clad demon finally elbowed the angel in the ribs, hard.

“Come on, Amenadiel,” she muttered just loud enough for him to hear. “There has to be something you can do.”

“Don’t you think if there was I would have done it already?” he shot back. “I know we’ve had our differences, but Lucifer is my brother.”

“Didn’t you say that since we sent your whore of a mother back to Hell you’ve gotten some powers back?”

“Just small things. Minor things. I’m a little stronger, my own injuries heal a little faster. I can’t heal a whole celestial being, especially when I have no idea what is ailing him.”

Maze fixed him with a hard glare. “Try.”

He opened his mouth to argue back, then closed it just as fast. No one ever won an argument with Maze, mostly because it usually dissolves into a physical altercation. Instead he moved towards the couch and knelt down beside Chloe.

“Excuse me,” he murmured. 

Chloe scooted away to give him some room. Dan finally rejoined the group, drink in hand, a look of placid disbelief on his face. Amenadiel placed one hand softly on Lucifer’s chest, but he turned to address Chloe.

“I don’t know what I can do for him,” he explained. “So I can’t promise that this will have any effect.”

She didn’t reply, just nodded her head. Amenadiel then look back at his brother’s face, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. He dug deep inside himself, trying to find the power that he took for granted so many times. What was once a blazing fire inside him now felt more like a weak ember, but he focused on the warmth of it. He coaxed it out of inside of him and down to his hand, then urged it from his palms to flow into Lucifer, finding what needed to be healed and to fix it.

As the others watched, a faint glow appeared from Amenadiel’s hand as it lay on Lucifer’s chest. Chloe let out a gasp while Dan muttered a “Holy shit.”

After a moment the glow faded and the angel pulled away his hand. He blinked his eyes open then rubbed his face, suddenly feeling exhausted. Lucifer continued to lay unmoving on the couch, and Chloe couldn’t help but feel disappointment seep in.

“Did that help?” she asked.

“I couldn't do much, but I think so,” Amenadiel replied. He tried to stand up but his legs felt too weak to carry him and nearly fell, but Maze managed to grab him under the arms and hold him up.

The demon gave him a smirk then guided him over to a chair to sit. She gave him a light punch on the shoulder. “You did good,” she said with a grin.

He couldn’t help but smile back, then looked back to Chloe. “As far as I can tell he’s just drained. Once he recovers his strength, he’ll wake up.”

Chloe wanted to feel relief but she didn’t feel better. “How can he be drained?”

“My best guess? However he saved the two of you from that explosion was too much for him.”

“Hold on,” Dan piped in, “You’re saying Lucifer, who is really the Devil, used some kind of power to save him and Chloe from the explosion?”

Amenadiel gave a tired shrug. “How else do you explain the two of them surviving?”

Dan didn’t answer, instead choosing to down the drink in his hand and then return to the bar to get more.

“Then what was the voice I heard?” Chloe asked.

“No idea,” he admitted.

“Well, as long as Lucifer is going to wake up, I’m happy,” Maze said. A wicked grin spread on her face. “I’m going to make him pay for scaring me like this.”

Chloe couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. “You’re not the only one.”

She finally stood up and checked her phone for the time. It was still the middle of the day, and she had to at some point go back to the precinct to explain what happened with the bomber. Still, she wanted to stay and be here when Lucifer woke up. 

As she chewed her lip, trying to decide what she was going to do, she noticed that Amenadiel was watching Lucifer’s sleeping form, a deep frown on his face.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. 

“Hmm?” Amenadiel looked up at her, then shook his head. “Oh, no, nothing.” But he still looked concerned.

“No, something’s up,” Chloe stated. “What is it?”

“There’s nothing wrong.”

Chloe crossed over and stood right in front of his chair, arms crossed. “You know, you are a terrible liar.”

“Chloe’s right,” Maze added. She stood behind Amenadiel’s chair and leaned over him. “You suck at lying. What’s up?”

“It’s probably nothing,” he said, trying not to look nervous.

Maze placed a hand on his shoulder and gripped it lightly. “Don’t make me hurt you.”

“Okay, okay,” Amenadiel quickly said, then looked from one woman to the other. “It’s just that when I was healing him, Lucifer felt different.”

“Different how?” Chloe asked.

“Different in that he didn’t feel… like his normal self.”

“You have to do better than that,” Maze uttered, her voice hinting a threat.

“Not like an angel,” he explained, “or even a fallen angel.”

He looked over at his sleeping brother, the same look of concern Chloe had seen earlier crossing his face. He took a deep breath, then let it out slowly.

“Lucifer… felt like a mortal.”


	2. True Faces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maze and Chloe talk about all things demonic as they wait for Lucifer to awaken, and when he finally does he isn't all that helpful in filling in the blanks of what happened during the explosion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aww yeah, we got some Maze and Chloe bonding time! I love their friendship very much, and writing them together is fun too.

“How are things going over there?” Chloe asked. She stood at the penthouse bar, fiddling with a napkin with one hand while the other held her phone to her ear.

“It’s all good, don’t worry,” Dan assured her on the other end. “I told them the warehouse was already in flames when we got there, they’re assuming the bomber must have made some mistake while building her next set of bombs and blew herself up.”

Chloe took a relieved breath. “That’s good. Did anyone ask why we took off as soon as the first responders showed up?”

“I told them Lucifer got violently ill. It was close enough to the truth.”

“Thank you so much Dan,” she said, feeling like a huge weight of dread was lifting off her shoulders. “I really appreciate you taking care of that while I stayed at Lux. Are you coming back now?”

There was a moment of silence on the other end and Chloe could just imagine how Dan must look, trying to come up with an excuse not to return to the penthouse. It was a face she saw often on him during their years as a married couple.

“I-I have a bunch of paperwork to catch up,” he told her weakly, “I should really stay here and finish it up.”

“You’re still freaking out about the whole angels and demons thing aren’t you?”

“Yes I am still freaking out!” His voice went up an octave. “I just saw a guy create light from his hand, like magic. And then Maze seemingly teleported from one side of the penthouse to the other!”

“She just did that to scare you,” Chloe said, trying not to let a smile cross her lips.

“Well it work!” Dan retorted. She could hear him taking a breath over the phone to try to calm himself down. “I just- I need some time to process it.”

“I completely understand. I’m still processing it too.”

“I’ll pick up Trixie after school, you don’t have to worry about it,” he added, sounding more like himself.

“You better not forget. If you do, I’ll send Maze to remind you.”

“That’s not funny.”

This time she allowed herself to smile. “It’s a little funny.”

“Keep me posted on what’s happening. And if you need anything just let me know.”

“I will, thanks,” and with that she hung up.

Grabbing two glasses of whiskey that had been sitting on the bar, Chloe turned and returned to the couches on the other side of the room. Lucifer still lay on the couch, unconscious, and Maze sat on a chair across from him.

It had only been a couple hours since they had first brought Lucifer back to his place, but there hadn’t been any signs of change. Dan had returned to the precinct not long after Amenadiel’s attempt to heal his brother, and the angel himself had retired to Lucifer’s room shortly afterward to lie down and rest, leaving the two roommates to watch over Lucifer’s sleeping form.

“How’s the Douche?” Maze asked as she accepted a drink from Chloe. “Still being a scaredy cat?”

“Don’t be so hard on him,” Chloe said as she sat down on a chair next to Maze, facing Lucifer as well. “The poor guy just had the unbelievable shoved in his face without any warning. It’s not an easy pill to swallow.”

“You seem to be handling it fine.”

Chloe gave a small snort. “That’s debateable. I feel completely thrown for a loop, but I also feel like I’ve been eased into it. I’ve seen Lucifer do some incredible things, logic defying things. After seeing it time and time again, you sort of just start to believe in it all on your own.”

Maze nodded and took a swig of her drink. “Well, you’re definitely handling it better than Linda did.”

“Linda?” Chloe gave her a confused look. “You mean Lucifer’s psychiatrist? She knows?”

“Oh yeah,” the demon nodded. “Nearly drove her insane, too. But that’s usually what happens when Lucifer shows his true face to people, they typically got batty.”

Chloe just stared at her roommate, trying to comprehend all the information she had just been given. “Okay, wait, true face? What the heck does that mean?”

“You don’t really think Lucifer looks like that, do you?” Maze scoffed while pointing to the man on the couch. “The Devil doesn’t look like a regular human, albeit a ridiculously hot one. Those paintings and silly cartoons of a big red horned monster came from somewhere, though they’re not very accurate.”

“The goat thing,” Chloe breathed. 

“Yes, the goat thing!” Maze let out a laugh and slapped her knee. “Oh he hates when people depict him with any parts that resemble a goat’s. But by the look on your face I bet you already knew that.”

The other woman nodded slowly, remembering the few times Lucifer got bent out of shape over that very thing, the latest incident having been him yelling at her television a few days ago while Trixie had been watching reruns of the Bugs Bunny Show and a certain hairy, cartoon Satan made an appearance. 

“Anyway,” Maze continued, “Lucifer can’t just go walking around L.A. in his real form, people would freak the fuck out.”

Chloe looked over Lucifer’s form, trying to wrap her head around the fact that the face she had come to know so well wasn’t, well, his. A sliver of sadness crept into her chest. Did she even know Lucifer at all?

“What does he really look like?” she found herself asking, not taking her eyes off him. 

“It’s pretty close to what he looks like now,” Maze admitted. “Less hair, more blood.”

“More blood?” Chloe looked back to Maze, confused. 

“The best way I can describe it,” the demon replied, “is that he looks like he was flayed alive.”

“Oh my God,” she gasped, “that sounds horrible.”

Maze shrugged and took another sip. “That’s what happens when you get cast out of the Silver City. It was part of his punishment.”

Chloe looked back at Lucifer, trying to envision what he really looked like and feeling like even the worst thing she could image wasn’t anywhere close to the truth. And what was worse was imagining how he must have come to look like that, what he must have gone through to receive that appearance. It must have been horrific.

“Do you have a true face?” Chloe asked finally, looking back to Maze.

She shifted in her seat under Chloe’s gaze, not appearing to be completely comfortable with the topic all of a sudden. “Maybe. Why?”

“What’s it like?”

Maze was quiet for a moment, then said, “It’s not as bad as his, but it has been known to terrify people in the past.”

“Will you show me?”

“Excuse me?” Maze sat up straighter and gave the blonde a hard look. “Why would you even ask that?”

“Because you’re my friend, Maze,” Chloe replied, “and I suddenly feel like I don’t know anything about you. But I want to know, I want to know everything.”

All she got in reply was a hard glare as Maze downed the rest of her drink, then stood and stalked towards the bar to refill her glass.

“I’m sorry if I offended you,” Chloe called after her. “I didn’t mean to.”

Maze didn’t reply, just poured herself another whiskey, downed it as well, and poured a third glass. The quiet stretched between them, until Maze came back towards the couches with her forth refill. 

“Okay,” the demon said. “Okay, I’ll show you. But you can’t freak out.”

“I won’t,” Chloe assured her quickly.

“I mean it, Decker,” Maze said, her face more serious than Chloe ever remembered seeing it before. “If you scream or cry, I will punch you in the face.”

“You don’t have to worry.”

Maze nodded, took a swig of her drink and then placed it on the coffee table. She then stood taller, her hands fidgeting at her sides.

“Okay. Close your eyes.”

“What?”

“Do it or you don’t get to see.”

“Alright, fine,” Chloe conceded. “Closing eyes.” She did as she was told, shutting her eyes and taking in an anxious breath.

She could hear Maze taking a deep breath as well, but other than that there was no other sound to betray what change was occurring. 

“Okay. Open them.” Maze’s voice sounded nervous, something Chloe didn’t hear often, if ever.

When she opened her eyes she saw Maze standing in the same place, looking exactly the same except for one side of her face. Chloe took in a sharp inhale of breath. Half of her roommate’s face looked decomposed.

“Well?” the demon asked, rubbing her hands nervously on her pants.

Slowly Chloe stood up from her seat and came closer, compelled to take a closer look. There were tendons visible under torn flesh. Teeth jutted out of a hole in the side of Maze’s cheek, and the skin on her forehead was gone to reveal skull bone beneath. One dead, white eye looked back at her.

“Chloe,” Maze uttered as the detective came over silently. “Say something.”

“This is it?” The words popped out of Chloe’s mouth without her even thinking about them.

The look of complete shock that appeared on Maze’s face nearly made Chloe laugh out loud. 

“This is it?” Maze echoed. “That’s all I get, “This is it?””

“You made it sound like it would be a lot worse,” Chloe told her. “I was expecting horns, and a furry face, and maybe a snake for a tongue.”

The demon just stared at her in disbelief. “Half my face is decomposed.”

“I look at rotted corpses for a living, Maze.”

To Chloe’s surprise, Maze actually cracked a smile and let out a laugh. And even more of a surprise she pulled Chloe in for a hug, embracing her tightly.

“Thank you,” the black woman whispered in Chloe’s ear. When she pulled away her face was back to normal.

“No, thank you,” Chloe replied, “for trusting me.”

“I should have known you’d find it as no big deal,” Maze continued. “Trixie thought it was pretty cool when I showed her.”

Chloe blinked at this. “Trixie? You showed my daughter your demonic face?”

Maze shrugged, picked her glass up off the table, and sat back down in her chair. “It was Halloween.”

“And Trixie was okay with it?”

“She probably thought it was just makeup, but she loved it.”

As much as Chloe wanted to scold Maze for exposing her daughter to something that could have possibly traumatized her, she couldn’t help but feel a bit of pride bloom in her chest. Her daughter had been faced with something scary and unnatural, and not only had she accepted it in her stride, she adored it. Chloe couldn’t wait to go home and scoop Trixie up in her arms, and tell her how proud she was of her brave little girl with such a big heart.

“Maybe we should wait until she’s a bit older to let her know the truth,” Chloe mused as she sat back down in her chair and took a drink from her own waiting glass. “Like, when she’s in her twenties.”

“Afraid she can’t handle it?”

This made Chloe snort a bit. “More like I’m afraid she’ll convince you to use your powers to steal her candy.”

“Like she doesn’t already get me to do that without my powers.”

Chloe’s head snapped to stare at her roommate and her mouth opened to demand if Maze was joking, but before she could get a word out a groan came from the couch across from them. Lucifer was finally stirring.

“Oh my God, Lucifer,” Chloe was at his side in an instant, sitting on the couch by his hip. “Hey, are you alright?”

“Ughh,” was all he said in return. He moved his head slightly, then his face scrunched up in pain. “What- what’s going on?”

“You were hurt,” Chloe said. She wasn’t really sure where to even begin with what all had happened.

“You got blown up,” Maze offered. She had stood up and was now peering down over the two of them. 

“Is that why I hurt all over?” Lucifer groaned. He opened his eyes to squint at the two women. “I need a drink.”

“On it,” Maze said and turned to head over to the bar again.

Lucifer tried to sit up but instead let out a painful cry and fell back onto the couch. “Maze,” he tried to call out but his voice was strained, “make it a double.”

“Make it a water,” Chloe corrected in Maze’s direction, then turned back to her partner. “Take it easy, you really were in an explosion.”

He stared up at her for a moment, or at least as much of a stare he could manage with his eyes still squinted in pain. “I remember,” he said softly. “That crazy woman tried firing a gun at you and hit a barrel of explosive material. The whole place went up.”

“Yes, it did,” she said with a slow nod. Without thinking of it she took Lucifer’s hand and patted it reassuringly. 

“Then how did we survive?”

Chloe let out a low breath. “I was hoping you could tell me.”

His only response was a confused look, but before he could say anything Maze reappeared at their side, holding a glass of water in one hand and a couple pills in the other.

“Here,” she said as she thrust out the items she held. “I brought some pain pills. Just over the counter stuff, I didn’t think Chloe would let you dip into your harder stash.”

“And you would be right,” Chloe replied and took the glass and pills, and put them on the coffee table. “Okay Lucifer, let’s get you sitting up.”

The two women slowly helped Lucifer into a sitting position, all the while the Devil let out moans and curses.

“Usually when I wake up feeling this beaten,” Lucifer uttered once he leaned back into sofa cushions, “it’s after we’ve had Domantrix Night in August.”

“Oh yeah,” Maze said with a grin. “Remember that one year we hosted the sisters from Germany?”

Lucifer grinned back and started to chuckle, but it turned into a cough, which in turned made him grimace in pain.

“Really you two?” Chloe said, looking back and forth from them both in disbelief from where she sat beside Lucifer. She took the water from the table and pushed it towards her partner. “You, drink. You,” she looked pointedly at Maze, “see if Amenadiel is awake.”

“Yes ma’am,” Maze uttered but gave a playful smirk before heading off to the bedroom to do as she was told.

“Amenadiel’s here?” Lucifer asked after a sip of water. 

“Yeah, I asked Maze to bring him when you wouldn’t wake up. Now, take these.”

Chloe took the pain medication from the table and gave to Lucifer, and watched him down them with a mouthful of water. He didn’t look that good, his face was paler under the remainders of dirt that Chloe wasn’t able to wipe off earlier, and his eyes looked a little cloudy. 

“Lucifer,” she began slowly, “do you remember what happened after the explosion?”

He finished his water and gave the glass back to her. “I can’t say I do, I’m afraid. I just remember watching that woman pull out a gun and feeling that it was over, that we were done for.”

“So you didn’t save us?”

Lucifer fixed her with a contemplative look. “Why do you ask that?”

“Because Chloe said she heard a voice.”

Amenadiel was walking towards them, Maze following behind. The angel leaned on the back of one of the chairs and continued, “She said she heard a voice when she came to, and the two of you were completely unscathed from the explosion.”

“Well hello dear brother,” Lucifer said with a smirk. “Way to make a rather ominous entrance. Now what do you mean Chloe heard a voice?”

“He’s right,” Chloe added. She looked down at her hands in her lap. “It wasn’t a human voice, it was something else. I heard it inside my head, and it felt… powerful.”

Lucifer gazed at his partner, seeing the worry and fear that had taken over her face. He didn’t like it when she was afraid of something and he wanted nothing more than to take her hand and let her know that it was alright, but kept from doing so in front of the company they found themselves in.

“And it said,” she continued, her voice low and even, “it said “As you wish-””

“-King of Hell,” Lucifer finished for her. 

Chloe’s eyes snapped up to look at him, and he could feel both Amenadiel and Maze straighten with his words, but he only cared about how Chloe reacted.

“You heard it too?” she gasped.

“Very faintly,” Lucifer admitted. “I remember there was a roaring sound of the building going up in flames, and a bright light, and incredible pain. Then I heard that just before everything went black.”

Amenadiel rubbed a hand over his shaved head. “Do you have idea who, or what, said it?”

Lucifer shrugged in reply. “Not a single clue. I barely even heard it as I passed out. But I am very grateful if it saved the two of us and would like to send it a gift basket in thanks.”

“It said “As you wish,”” Maze said slowly, tapping a finger on her chin. “Did you make some kind of wish?”

“Not out loud.” Lucifer crossed his arms, scrunched his face at the slight pain he felt from the movement, then tried to look thoughtful. “But as soon as I realized that insane woman was going to start firing off her gun all willy nilly, I definitely started thinking we were both going to die, and that I desperately wanted that to not be the case.”

He didn’t add that he was really more concerned for Chloe’s safety and he had been wishing that she, not the two of them, would be spared by the impending explosion.

Amenadiel began to pace back and forth. “So you wished to survive, and something granted your wish.”

“Passing djinn?” Maze offered.

“You usually have to speak your wish out loud,” Amenadiel said. “And most of them have died out.”

“Hezzes?” the demon continued, listing off any creatures she knew could grant wishes. “Certain types of demons? Witches? Fairies? It better not be a leprechaun, I hate those little bastards.”

“Djinn? Fairies?” Chloe questioned. “Are you saying those things are real too?”

“Well yeah,” Maze told her. “You didn’t think angels and demons were the only things out there, did you?”

“Huh,” was all Chloe could say in return. She leaned back into the couch, feeling that her world had definitely gotten a lot more larger and complicated. 

“Do you want another drink?” Maze offered.

“Yes please.”

“Angels and demons?” Lucifer said as he turned to face his partner. He examined her face for a moment then broke into a grin. “It’s about time you came around and accepted the truth, Detective.”

She gave him an incredulous look. “You cannot just look at my face and know that I’ve started to believe in all this.” As she said “all this” she waved a hand towards the other three people in the room.

“I know you, Detective,” he said, still grinning. “I know you’ve believed me for a while now but you were too stubborn to accept it. If I had known a mysterious voice would force you to accept your belief I would have called up some old friends long ago.”

Before Chloe could give him a scathing retort Amenadiel spoke up. “We need to look into this more. Perhaps Maze and I should go take a look at the site of the accident and see if our anonymous wish granter left some clues behind.”

“What’s the point?” Lucifer asked. Maze returned to the group with two glasses of alcohol, and handed one to him and the other to Chloe. “Thank you, darling. The wish has been granted, Chloe and I are fine, despite me feeling like I’ve been flogged by a French Madame. Let’s just be thankful and move on.”

The other three exchanged looks, not sure which one should be the one to tell him.

Lucifer took a sip of his whiskey and eyed their wordless exchange. “What? What is it?”

“You’re the Devil,” Maze finally said. “You more than anyone should know that wishes don’t come without a price.”

“Yes, I imagine that’s why I feel utterly pummelled.”

“And depending on what sort of creature granted your wish,” Amenadiel added, “Sometimes they back fire, or come with unforeseen consequences. We need to look into who or what granted your wish so we can reverse the after effects.”

“Oh, come now,” Lucifer demanded, slamming is glass on the coffee table. Nothing annoyed him more than being kept out of the loop. Well, maybe there were other things, but at that very moment being kept in the dark was the worst offender. “Speak plainly, what do you mean “reverse the after effects”? Just spit it out!”

“Lucifer,” it was Chloe who spoke. She sat up and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Amenadiel tried to heal you when you were unconscious. He said that you felt… mortal.”

The word cut through him. He looked at Chloe in disbelief, then turned to look at his brother. “Is this true?”

“I’m not completely sure,” he admitted, “my power isn’t anywhere close to being as strong as it once was, but that’s how you felt. You didn’t feel like an angel, you felt like a human.”

Lucifer let his eyes drift to the floor, but didn’t exactly see it. Mortal. That must be why his body hurt so bad and his head was pounding, he couldn’t heal himself like normal. He reached out for his whiskey glass and downed the rest of it.

“Alright,” he uttered. “So what do I do?”

“We should do some tests,” Amenadiel offered, “see if you retain any of your powers. Then Maze and I will hunt down what did this and make it reverse it.”

“I can’t just sit back and be useless,” Lucifer uttered.

“Hey, mortals aren’t useless,” Chloe told him, giving him a gentle shove. “I’m mortal and I’ve saved your butt plenty of times. No, we’ll continue doing our job and wait to see what Maze and Amenadiel find out.”

Lucifer turned to look at her, almost in disbelief. “You still want me to work with you? Even if I don’t have any powers to help you?”

“Lucifer, of course,” she assured him. “You’ll need to be a bit more careful and not barge into dangerous situations like you usually do, but of course I want you to be there. You’re my partner.”

He felt warmth bloom in his chest as he looked at Chloe, and a slow smile spread across his face. “Thank you, Chloe.”

She gave him an easy smile back. “Any time. But first you need to rest.”

“I am perfectly fine,” Lucifer told her. He tried to stand up but his muscles screamed in protest, causing him fall back onto the couch. 

Both Chloe and Maze let out a laugh while Amenadiel tried to hide a smirk behind his hand.

“Oh, Lucifer as a mortal,” Maze said with a dark grin. “This might be very entertaining.”

“Do anything horrible to me, Maze,” the Devil warned in a dark tone, “and I will return it tenfold when I return to my true self.”

Her smile just became wider and she grabbed him under one arm, pulling him to his feet and making him let out a long groan of pain. “Oh, I’m shaking in my boots. Come one, let’s get you in a bath, you stink of dirt and human.”

Maze guided Lucifer away from the couch and towards the bathroom. Her former boss looked her up and down. 

“Have you always been this strong?” he questioned.

The only reply she gave was a short laugh.

Amenadiel and Chloe watched the two of them go. Once the bathroom door clicked closed they then faced each other.

“Do you think it’s wise to take Lucifer on cases?” Amenadiel asked. “He’s vulnerable now.”

“He was vulnerable before,” Chloe told him. “He was still able to get injured around me even with his powers. No, it’s important to keep him busy instead of letting him mope around here until we find out how to fix this.”

Amenadiel nodded, seeing the logic. He then looked Chloe up and down as if appraising her.

“What?” She asked, feeling a bit uncomfortable under his scrutiny.

“Lucifer is lucky to have someone like you around,” he told her. “You just learned that God, the Devil, and everything in between is real and yet it’s left you unfazed.”

“Oh, I’m fazed,” she said as she crossed her arms and hugged herself. “I’m very fazed. But Lucifer needs me to be strong right now. He needs something normal in his life right now to hold on to, or else he might fall apart.”

Amenadiel nodded slowly, then to Chloe’s surprise he patted her on the shoulder. “I feel better knowing my brother is in good hands. Now I’m going to check on them to make sure Maze doesn’t try to drown him just to see if she can now.”

As he walked away Chloe found her hand going to her shoulder where Amenadiel’s hand had just been. Even though her insides felt like a tight knot and she felt like she was going to need a strong drink when she got home, she also felt a little hopeful. 

Yes, angels and demons and also all kinds of monsters were real, but they weren’t all bad. Maze was a demon but still her friend and roommate, and Amenadiel seemed to believe in her as well. She knew it wasn’t going to be easy, and she knew that having to take care of Lucifer as a human was probably going to be harder than taking care of her own daughter, but she could do it. She had to, Lucifer needed her to.


	3. A Migration of Power

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone is coming up with theories as to why Lucifer may have been turned mortal, and the Devil himself works his first case without his powers. It does not go well for him.

“So you’re saying that there are creatures out there with the power to strip the Devil himself of his powers?”

Dr. Martin leaned back in her chair and massaged a temple with her fingers. Across from her Lucifer sat on her couch, legs crossed and an arm resting across the back.

“Depends on the being,” Lucifer explained. “Some wish granters can only create illusions, while others have the ability to warp reality itself. They’re very tricky, I usually try to avoid them at all costs.”

Linda took a deep breath, still trying to expand her mind to accept this new information to the growing complexities of the world she never knew existed before. Just when she thought she had figured out the world, Lucifer threw her for another loop.

“You’ve never mentioned other beings before,” Linda said with a frown. “What else is out there? Do they live among us like you do, or do they live in hiding? Are they dangerous?”

He gave a small chuckle. “Doctor, you have nothing to fret about, L.A. has been monster free for years. Having the Devil as a resident tends to keep the supernatural away. They wouldn’t dare step into my territory and cause trouble.”

“Except your family,” she noted.

“Yes, they are a little more impertinent.”

“And this mysterious wish granter.”

“The point is,” Lucifer told her stiffly, “that you do not have to worry about some boogeyman attacking you in some dark alleyway, just your average human males.”

To his surprise she actually seemed to relax a little, as if monsters creeping up on her in the night was suddenly a very real fear of hers. 

“Now,” Linda said as she readjusted in her seat, back to her professional psychiatrist mode, “You said you remember wishing for Chloe to be safe from the explosion, and just Chloe. Yet you’re still here.”

To this he shrugged. “Wish granters are notoriously devious, Doctor, the majority of them take immense enjoyment out of the misery of others. There’s a reason people say “Be careful what you wish for.” Many times wishes become warped, or they are interpreted incorrectly by the granter, or there are unforeseen consequences.”

“So you becoming mortal may be a consequence.”

“Or a price,” he added. “Many wishes require prices.”

“It almost sounds like making a deal with the Devil,” Linda said with a sly grin.

Lucifer frowned. “Very funny, Doctor. But I’ll admit that sometimes my favours do have unforeseen and regrettable results.”

She nodded to herself and examined him for a moment, then said, “Do you think that maybe you being turned mortal could be a punishment?”

This caught his attention. He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees. “A punishment?”

“You wished for Chloe to be saved,” Linda explained, “and that was the only thing you thought about, not your own safety. This is something that has been reoccurring for you. Whenever danger arises you never think to protect yourself, and often you put yourself in harm’s way for the sake of Chloe, regardless of what could happen to you.”

“Well, I’m the Devil,” he told her, “I’m immortal. I’m impervious to harm.”

“You were impervious. But for almost a year now, whenever you are with Chloe, you can be hurt. You can even die. Yet you still go about acting like you’re invincible. Or that you don't care if you are harmed.”

To this he frowned deeply and sat back against the couch cushions. “I suppose it never occurred to me.”

“I don’t believe that’s true. I think with everything that has happened in the last year you stopped caring about your own safety, believing that maybe you deserve any sort of harm or pain that comes to you as a sort of penance for things you feel you did wrong.”

Lucifer didn’t respond, just looked down at his hands in his lap.

“But that’s not fair, Lucifer,” Linda continued. “Yes, you have made mistakes, and yes there have been terrible repercussions, but it’s not all your fault. You can’t keep looking for punishment. I think maybe this wish granter, whoever or whatever they are, recognized this in you wishing for Chloe’s safety and not your own, and maybe turned you mortal to teach you a lesson.”

“And what lesson is that, Doctor?” he asked, finally looking up at her face.

“That you need to take care of yourself,” she said simply. “By stripping you of your powers you will need to learn to put a real effort into keeping yourself safe, of making your own safety a priority. But most importantly that you’re not expendable.”

“I’m not?” It came out weakly before he could even stop himself from saying it.

“No, Lucifer, you’re not.” Linda’s face became soft and the look she gave him tender. “You act brazen and egotistical, but you constantly underestimate your own worth, and what you mean to the people around you. This may be good for you, you know. I think as you are learning to traverse the world of mortality you will come to see just how many people care about you and your wellbeing, and how many will step up to help keep you safe.”

*

The building, or what was left of it, stood black and charred in the middle of nowhere. The scent of doused flames wafted in the light breeze, taking bits of ash with it. Amenadiel ducked under the yellow police tape that surround the burnt remains and then lifted it high for Maze to follow. She just gave him a glare and raised a long leg over a different section of tape to hop over. With a sign Amenadiel let the tape in his hand fall and turned to look at the site.

“Chloe and Lucifer really were lucky to get out,” he said as he walked deeper into the debris. 

Most of the building was gone. Though only the far end had been destroyed in the explosion, by the time the fire crews reached the area flames had swallowed the rest. The ground was a litter of black rubble, twisted metal lumps, and shattered glass. 

“It wasn’t luck,” Maze uttered as she followed. She stopped and gazed down at a spot on the concrete that was unburnt and had little debris scattered over it.

Amenadiel gave a small nod and came over to her side. He imagined this was where Lucifer and Chloe must have been when the explosion happened. Neither his brother nor the detective could give with 100% certainty where they had been standing when it all happened, it had all gone down too fast, but this was most definitely the place. The near perfect circle on the ground didn’t seem to be touched by the fire at all.

“Let’s get this over with,” Maze said, glancing around. “This place gives me the creeps.”

“You?” he asked, turning to face her. “Creeped out? Really?”

He got a glare from her in return. “Shut up. Let’s just hurry up and get out of here.”

Maze stalked away, looking for anything else that might stand out, while Amenadiel stepped closer to the circle, the toes of his boots just touching the edge. He let his arms dangle beside his body, palms facing outwards, and closed his eyes with a deep breath.

He tried to feel something, anything, that might give them an idea of what they were looking for. They needed to find a way to change Lucifer back, already his brother was driving him nuts with his mortality. The Devil had been furious that morning when his hair wouldn’t cooperate with him. His hair! Apparently no longer having his powers kept Lucifer from looking as completely gorgeous and put together as he usually did. If that was how he was going to react to something as unnecessary as a hairdo Amenadiel did not want to be there when his brother got seriously into trouble without his abilities for the first time.

But he felt nothing. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the lack of his own powers or because there was nothing there, but nothing otherworldly touched any of his senses, just the smell of the burnt building and the breeze in his ears.

With a sigh he opened his eyes and turned to find Maze at the other end of the shed remnants, kicking at some blackened wood to see what was underneath it.

“I got shit all,” she said as he came over to her, “just the smell of barbequed human.”

“Nothing’s standing out to me, either,” Amenadiel admitted. 

“Good, let’s get out of here.” Maze started marching towards Amenadiel’s waiting car (which was brand new since the demon obliterated his old one).

“Whoa, hang on,” he said to her back, “shouldn’t we look around a little bit longer? We just got here.”

Maze stopped and turned around, hands on hips. “If something strong enough to turn Lucifer into a snivelling human came through here, do you really think it would leave some clues behind?”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t know, maybe. We don’t know what did it.”

“And standing around here isn’t going to help us figure it out,” she snapped. Without another word she turned on her heel and marched back to the car with purpose, ripping down the police tap as she went instead of bothering to climb over it.

“Maze!” Amenadiel called after her. 

He nearly had to jog to catch her just as she made it to the vehicle, and when he did he grabbed her by the elbow and spun her to face him.

“Hey, what’s going on?” he asked as she roughly pulled her arm away from him. “You’re acting, well, off.”

For a moment Amenadiel wondered if Maze could fire lasers from her eyes because how she was looking at him made it seem like she was trying to. It was a little terrifying. But then she huffed in annoyance and looked back towards the burnt building.

“Something in my gut is telling me to get away from here,” she said darkly. 

Amenadiel searched her face before slowly saying, “It’s scaring you.”

She looked back at him, eyes black and menacing. “I don’t get scared. But I’m starting to think it wasn’t some low grade fairy that changed Lucifer. It was something big and nasty. And not in the way I like it.”

He turned and looked at the ruined building. “I don’t feel anything.”

“Well goodie for you. Can we go now?” she demanded.

“Yes, of course.”

Maze didn’t say anything as they drove away, but the further they got from the crime scene the more she seemed to relax. Finally, after ten minutes of silence, she spoke.

“Do you think it could be something from Hell?” she asked while looking out the passenger window.

“Why do you ask that?” Amendiel questioned, not taking his eyes off the road.

“Only weak supernatural beings still roam the Earth, creatures that don’t really pose any threat to the higher ups.” She cast a glance Heaven bound. “Anything with any real sort of power was either destroyed or sent to Hell long ago. And what I felt back there…” She gave a shudder.

“It can’t be from Hell,” he assured her. “Nothing can get out.”

“Your mother did.”

“She is immensely more powerful than anything else residing in Hell. And now she’s back there anyway, thanks to Lucifer, Azrael, and I.”

“Didn’t Azrael do the majority of the work? And only because she wanted her blade back?”

Amenadiel puckered his lips together in a sour expression. “That’s not the point. The point is that Mother is back in Hell where she belongs.”

“But what’s keeping her there?”

“What?”

Maze shifted in her seat and turned to look at him squarely. “I mean it, what’s keeping Mommy Dearest down there? What’s keeping anything down there? Lucifer ditched, so who’s keeping watch over the inmates?”

“Well, I kept watch for a while,” he told her. “Made sure nothing slipped out. Until, well, I no longer had the ability to do so.”

“So who’s doing it now?”

“Hmm?”

“Amenadiel.” Her voice became tight and she gritted her teeth. “Who is watching Hell now?”

“Well,” he started, but his tone was weak, “I- I think- It must be-”

“Amenadiel!”

“I don’t know!” He shouted back. “I haven’t exactly been getting weekly reports since I fell.”

“Oh, this is just perfect,” Maze sat back in her seat and crossed her arms angrily. “For all we know nobody could be watching the place.”

He shot a quick glare at her before looking back at the road. “Hey, this wouldn’t be a problem if Lucifer never abdicated the Throne in the first place!”

“What if she sent someone?” Maze uttered.

“Who?”

“Your mother.” She enunciated each syllable with malice. “She could have sent something out of Hell to get revenge on Lucifer for locking her up again. He was the mastermind behind her trip back to Flamesville.”

Amenadiel let out a small laugh but it was half hearted. “I don’t think she would.”

“I completely think she would,” she retorted. “That bitch is a straight up monster. What if this is just the start?”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Lucifer is mortal now. Meaning he can be killed. Not just when he is with Chloe. At any time, at any place.”

Amenadiel took a slow breath, letting the thought sink in. He didn’t think Mother could be so vengeful that she would set out to murder her own son, at least he hoped she wasn’t. Still, Maze had a compelling argument, it was worth looking into.

“I’ll try to get in touch with some siblings,” he finally said. “See if someone can tell me what’s been going on in Hell and if there’s been trouble.”

“Good,” was all Maze said before turning to look back out her window. Though her tone was gruff he noticed a small smile on her lips. He didn’t wait for a “Thank you,” he knew it wouldn’t come, but that smile was enough. They drove the rest of the way in silence.

*

Lucifer stood on the sidewalk outside a large building, waiting for the Detective. She had texted him as he left his session with Dr. Martin that there was a case she needed help with, and he had agreed to meet her outside this office, but she had yet to arrive.

He watched the people rushing past as he pulled a cigarette from its package and placed it to his lips. Humans, of all shapes and sizes. So busy, trying to fill their lives with so much while they still had them. And now he was one of them.

The night before he didn’t feel any different, or least he didn’t think so, but today he had notice a shocking difference. He didn’t feel completely alert when he awoke that morning, instead feeling groggy and annoyed when his alarm went off. When he brushed his teeth there had actually been blood present when he spit in the sink. Maze had actually teased that he might have to visit the dentist for a checkup. And of course, there was the fiasco with his hair which he didn’t want to think about. 

And now, as he stood taking a drag on his cigarette, the sun felt warmer on his skin than it usually did, causing him to actually perspire under his three piece suit. Sweating was simply disgusting, how did humans stand it? He finally understood why grown men went about it shorts and flip flops no matter how undignified they looked. He would have to rethink his wardrobe. Something lighter. 

“Oh no,” he heard spoken from his right. He turned to see Chloe walking up and instantly his face brightened. At least this was something that had remained the same.

“Good afternoon, Detective,” Lucifer said with a grin. “You said you need assistance with tracking down a suspect. Here I am, at your services.”

But Chloe was frowning deeply. “Uh, uh, I don’t think so,” she said before grabbing his cigarette and throwing it on the ground, squishing it under her boot for good measure. 

“What on earth-” Lucifer said, gaping at her. “I swear that was a completely normal cigarette, Detective. I know better than to bring the fun ones around you anymore.”

“Lucifer,” she said, giving him a scrutinizing look and sounding like she was lecturing a child, “you can’t do that sort of thing anymore. You are a mortal, you have to start taking care of yourself.”

“What?”

“Smoking can kill you,” she said plainly.

“You never seemed to mind before, back when you didn’t believe that I was the Devil.”

“Uh- yeah, um- well,” she stumbled over her words, all her fire from before suddenly sputtering out, “things change.” She looked down and Lucifer thought he saw a bit of a blush creeping up on her cheeks. “Until we can get you back to normal, you need to make some lifestyle changes. What did you have for breakfast?”

He gave her a confused look. “The usual, of course. A glass of scotch.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. “See, this is what I mean. Scotch is not a breakfast. After we’re done here we’re going to get you something proper to eat.”

“A lunch date,” he said with a wicked grin. “I accept.”

That got him another exasperated eye roll before Chloe took a step back and really took a good look him. Usually he would love this sort of attention from her, but at the moment he felt rather self-conscious. Would she notice the sweat prickling his forehead? Would it bother her? It didn’t help when her lips turned down in a slight frown. 

“What?” Lucifer finally asked, unable to stand that scrutinizing expression any longer. “What is it?”

“Nothing,” she told him, a bit too quickly. “What’s up with your hair?”

His face went sour. “I don’t want to talk about it.” He then quickly turned and headed towards the building’s large glass doors, Chloe following with a little laugh.

Inside was some kind of a lobby, with couches and a television to one side and receptionist’s desk on the other. A single elevator was on the wall opposite the entrance, and an emergency stairwell off in the corner. The only person there was the receptionist, a petite brunette typing away at the computer.

“Hi there,” Chloe said as she strolled over to the pristine white desk, getting the other woman’s attention. 

“Oh, hello,” the woman, who’s placard on the desk read Jenna, replied. She stopped working and turned to face the two of them fully. 

Jenna gave them both a smile, and her eyes lingered a bit longer on Lucifer, but to his disappointment it wasn’t the usual lustful look he usually got. Something else it seemed he would need to get used to.

Chloe pulled out her badge and showed it to the receptionist. “I’m Detective Decker, this is my partner Lucifer Morningstar. We’re looking for a Fredrick Mason, he works in one of the offices upstairs.”

“Oh,” Jenna’s smile slipped away. “I’m sorry, Dr. Mason isn’t here. He didn’t show up this morning.”

That’s because he’s possibly on the run, Lucifer thought, but knew not to say that out loud. Chloe had texted him the gist of the case: a woman found murdered in a park that morning, Amara Mason. While Lucifer had been with Linda, Chloe had gone to the victim’s home to give the terrible news to her husband, Dr. Fredrick Mason, but the good doctor wasn’t anywhere to be found. In fact, it looked like someone had left in a hurry. It was incredibly suspicious, of course. So now the two of them had come to his work place, where he was a psychologist, to see if they could find where he went.

“Dr. Mason is a person of interest in a case we’re investigating,” Chloe was explaining. “We would like to take a look around his office.”

“Oh my god,” the other woman gasped. “What happened?”

“We’re not at liberty to say, unfortunately.”

The receptionist gave an understanding nod. “I understand. But I’m sorry, I can’t let you in. Dr. Mason has confidential files kept in there. He would be absolutely furious if he comes back and finds that I just let people in. I could lose my job.”

Chloe gave a stiff nod and stepped away from the desk. Lucifer followed her a little ways away from the receptionist and the two leaned close together. 

“We could get a warrant,” she said. “But that could take a while. We don’t exactly have proof that Mason did anything to his wife, just that he can’t be found right now.”

“Leave it to me, Detective,” Lucifer assured her, flashing a smile. 

He sauntered back to Jenna’s desk and sat on the edge of it, giving her his most brilliant smile.

“Hello,” he purred. “We weren’t properly introduced. Lucifer Morningstar.” He held out his hand.

Jenna looked a little taken aback. “Uh, Jenna.” She weakly took his hand to shake it, but instead Lucifer pulled it up to his lips and gave it a small peck. He could’ve sworn he heard Chloe snort behind him but ignored it.

“Jenna, what a lovely name,” Lucifer told her, making sure to hold her gaze with his own. “Now Jenna, this Dr. Mason sounds like a dreadful fellow, it must be hard to work for him.”

“Uh, yeah, I guess,” she said. “He has a short temper. It can be kind of scary.”

He gave her a sympathetic nod. “That doesn’t not sound like an ideal work environment.”

“No, not really.”

Now was the time to bust out his signature move. He leaned in closer to Jenna, giving her an intent look. “No, I imagine not. You must dream of a different job. Tell me, what is it that you desire?”

Jenna just stared back at him, her eyes searching his, and she slowly opened her mouth, and-

“That’s a really weird way of asking that.”

Lucifer sat up straight, shocked by her words. No, no, no, this was all wrong. Jenna was leaning away from him now, a confused and almost wary look on her face instead of the enamoured one he was so use to people giving him.

“Like really weird,” Jenna continued, still looking at him suspiciously. “Are you trying to hit on me? Because I’m taken.”

Before he could respond Chloe was at his side, clearly looking like she was trying not to laugh, and pushing Lucifer off the desk. 

“It’s okay, I got this,” she told him and waved him away.

Feeling defeated and more than a little embarrassed, Lucifer moved away from the desk, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking dejected.

“Jenna,” Chloe was saying to the receptionist, “I’m sorry about my partner, he’s having an off day.”

“Yeah, I can see.”

Lucifer glowered at the two of them, but they didn’t notice.

“But can you blame him for hitting on you?” Chloe asked. She leaned onto the desk with both hands and gave Jenna a soft smile. “You’re a very beautiful woman.”

What on earth? Lucifer thought, staring at Chloe’s back. He couldn’t see her face, but he could see that Jenna was relaxing in her seat and actually had a sheepish grin creeping onto her face.

“Oh, you’re just saying that,” Jenna said, flapping a hand. “I wouldn’t say beautiful.”

“I definitely would,” the Detective assured her, and she surprised Lucifer further by reaching out and fixing a strand of the other woman’s hair. “Don’t ever down play your beauty, Jenna. You are gorgeous.”

Was she-? Yes, the receptionist was actually blushing! Lucifer could only look on in amazement at what was unfolding before him. 

“Now Jenna,” Chloe continued. She reached out and took the other woman’s hand in one of hers. “I would never want to put you in danger, or jeopardize your job, but my partner and I are on a very important case.”

Jenna said nothing, just nodded with her lips half open, her eyes glued to Chloe’s face. 

“It’s very important that we get a look inside Dr. Mason’s office. It could help us crack this case and stop a criminal. And if Dr. Mason comes back and is angry with you, I will sort him out. For you.”

“Oh wow,” the brunette said as a huge smile broke across her face. “Yeah, okay, just give me a second.”

As Jenna began digging through one of her drawers Chloe turned to look at Lucifer, smirking. He felt that he should be mad, or at least a little annoyed, but all he could feel was impressed. And maybe a little aroused.

“Here,” Jenna said finally. She held up a key ring, one key extended out towards the Detective. “I have keys to all the offices. This one is for Dr. Mason’s office. He’s 204. Just give them back to me when you’re done.”

“Of course,” Chloe said as she took the keys, smiling sweetly at the brunette. “I would be lost without your help, Jenna.”

With keys in hand, Chloe joined Lucifer at the elevator and pressed the button for the second floor. As the doors opened and they went inside, Lucifer looked back and saw that the receptionist was still watching them, or really Chloe, biting her lower lip and looking completely smitten.

“Well, well, well, Detective,” he said once the doors were closed and the elevator began to move. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”

She gave him a mischievous smile. “There’s still a lot you don’t know about me, Lucifer.”

For a moment he thought his heart beat quickened, but maybe he was imagining it. All morning things had been causing his usual steady pulse to speed up; missing the last step of a staircase and nearly falling, someone nearly sideswiping him while he was driving, a ridiculously adorable puppy walking down the street. He supposed it was just a human thing.

“How did you know that would work?” he asked. The elevator came to a stop and the doors opened up onto a long hallway.

“I didn’t,” Chloe admitted. “I just figured we had nothing else to lose.” She led the way down the hall and Lucifer followed.

“Well colour me impressed, Detective-”

Before he could finish his praise Chloe pressed a hand to his chest and shushed him. Once again his pulse sped up for an unknown reason. The Detective nodded towards a door nearby that was slightly ajar, a little sign beside it reading 204. She reached for her holster and pulled out her gun.

“That’s Dr. Mason’s office,” she said in a hushed voice. “You wait out here, I’ll go take a look.”

“I most certainly will not,” Lucifer objected.

Chloe fixed him with a serious look. “This is not up for discussion. Stay here where I know you’re safe.”

For a moment Linda’s words echoed in Lucifer’s head, of how people would step up to keep him safe. And though the sentiment touched him, he still would not stay out in the hall twiddling his thumbs. Where Chloe went, he went. And he told her as much.

“Lucifer, please,” she said, her voice an angry whisper, “I would feel much better if you just stayed out here.”

“Because I’m mortal now?”

“Yes.”

“You’re just as mortal, yet it’s alright for you to go barging into danger.”

Her lips turned into an annoyed thin line. “I am a trained police officer. You are not.”

“I am not suddenly made of fragile glass, Detective,” Lucifer told her. “You do not need to coddle me. I may have lost my immortality but I have not lost my dignity.”

Just then, from the office down the hall, they heard muffled movement, like someone opening and closing drawers. 

“We don’t have time for this,” Chloe finally conceded. “Just stay behind me, okay?”

“Fine.”

The two of them creeped slowly down to the ajar door. Once outside it Chloe’s hand hovered over the doorknob, her gun at the ready, and she glance over her shoulder to give Lucifer a quick nod. It was another one of those moments that his heart beat faster. This was going to get annoying, wasn’t it?

Then Chloe threw open the door and charged in, calling out, “L.A.P.D.!” and Lucifer followed after.

He wasn’t two steps into the office when the door was slammed closed behind him and something came down on the back of his head. Pain splintered across his skull, stars burst before his eyes, and without realizing it he fell to the floor with a weak cry as bits of a ceramic vase rained down around him.

“Freeze!” Chloe called out, spinning around and pointing her gun at Lucifer’s attacker.

Lucifer’s vision was hazy and unfocused, but he could make out a large, overweight man bellowing unintelligently as he charged forward and knocked the gun out of Chloe’s hands.

No, Chloe, he thought weakly but he could make himself get up.

The man raised a meaty hand to smash it into the Detective’s face, and Lucifer could only watch helplessly, and he braced himself for the sound of the punch-

But it didn’t happen. Instead Chloe had caught the massive fist in her own dainty hand and stopped it in its tracks. Both the man and Chloe stood looking confused and stared at their two hands together before Chloe came to her senses first and wound back her free hand, bringing it forward in a fist to connect with the man’s dopey expression. 

And the man flew. He literally flew across the room and crashed into a bookshelf on the other side of the office before he slumped to the floor unconscious. Both Lucifer and Chloe stared at his unmoving form, neither of them making a sound.

“Bloody Hell,” Lucifer finally breathed. He slowly made his way to his feet, which only made him a little dizzy as the back of his head pounded. 

“W-what was that?” Chloe asked. She was now staring at her own hands, a look of complete and utter fear on her face.

“You knocked a man three times your size across the room,” he told her. Of course she did, why didn’t he think of it before? Well, there simply hadn’t been enough evidence, but now there was. Surviving the explosion, the receptionist downstairs, now this.

“I-I don’t-” she looked from her hands to the man, then back again. “How did I do that?”

Lucifer made his way over to their attacker. He crouched down and examined him. “He’s still breathing. That’s a good thing, I suppose.”

“Lucifer,” Chloe called out, her voice shaking. “What is going on?”

“Oh, it’s obvious, don’t you think?” He turned to look back to her, and when she shook her head to say it wasn’t obvious he gave her a small smile. “I do believe we have found where my missing powers have gone.”


	4. The Tests With a Knife

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucifer and Chloe test the extent of her powers, which more or less freak Chloe out. Amenadiel gets in contact with a sibling and learns some bad things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It should be noted now that this fic is divergent from canon after the episode "Quid Pro Ho." If you haven't noticed, Lucifer and Chloe are not together. Yet. I don't want to spoil anything but.... yeah.

“Are you sure about this, Detective?” Lucifer asked. 

He and Chloe were in her kitchen, across the island from each other, both leaning on the countertop, their heads close together. Lucifer held one of Chloe’s hands in his own, but his attention was focused on her face, just a breath away from his own. 

Her blue eyes stared back into his, but at his question they closed and she took a slow, deep breath. As she exhaled they opened again to glance down at their hands clasped together on the countertop, then back up to his.

“Yes,” she uttered, her head quickly nodding. “I’m sure.”

Before she could change her mind, or he could change his, he quickly moved his free hand which gripped a sharp kitchen knife, and slashed it across the Detective’s palm.

“Ah!” Chloe screamed, and instantly Lucifer dropped her hand like it had burned him. She pulled her hand to her chest and cradled it there.

“Dad damn it, Detective!” he cried out, “are you alright? Did that actually hurt you?”

“No, no, I’m fine,” she said slowly. She examined her hand and then showed it to Lucifer; it was just as soft and pink as normal, no cut. “I guess I screamed out of instinct.”

“Yes, thanks for that,” he told her, though he looked more rattled by her scream than he let on. He dumped the knife on the countertop and folded his hands together. “Well, that seems to have been a definitive test.”

Chloe looked up from examining her hand again. “Definitive how?”

“You’re not vulnerable when I’m around, like I was with you. You were also able to charm that nice man we ran into outside into giving you his car keys-”

“Which I gave right back,” she interrupted.

“Yes, a waste that was, he obviously didn’t care for that Porche too much if he was just giving the keys to anyone.”

“Lucifer.” She gave him a stern look.

“I know,” he rolled his eyes, “you didn’t want to take advantage of your new abilities. But couple that with you tossing our overweight attacker from earlier, and this right here,” he motioned to the knife and then her hand, “I think we have our answer.”

Chloe frowned. “What’s that?”

“That you indeed have my powers, Detective,” he said. He smiled a little, like the thought excited him the tiniest bit. “Congratulations, you’re an immortal.”

She did not seem as thrilled as he was. Chloe gripped the edge of the island to help keep herself standing, suddenly feeling ill. It was like a huge wave was crashing over her, sucking all the air away. “I- I can’t be immortal.”

“Clever, really,” Lucifer said, more to himself, as he continued his own musings. “What better way to grant my wish for your safety than to make you indestructible.”

“Lucifer-”

“And immortality can’t come from just anywhere, very few creatures have true immortality that doesn’t come with a price-”

“- I- I can’t-”

“-so of course the easiest option would be to funnel it from me into you-”

“-Lucifer! Please!”

There was a loud crack. He stopped midsentence and stared at Chloe who now held a piece of the wood in her hands, a large jagged edge that had snapped off the counter in her grip.

“What- how-?” Chloe said, staring with confusion at the shard of counter she held. It felt harder to breathe, like she couldn’t get the air she needed into her lungs. “Lucifer, I don’t think I can do this.”

“Oh, Detective,” his tone turned soft. “Of course you can. I know you can.”

Carefully he took the broken wood from her grasp, set it on the countertop, then placed a hand on her lower back and guided her towards the sitting area.

“I- I don’t even know how I did that,” Chloe said, glancing back at the island. She grasped his free hand and was about to squeeze it for comfort, then remembered what she just did and stopped herself. “How am I supposed to control myself? What if I hurt someone?” 

“Chloe, you needn’t worry,” he assured her. He sat her on the couch and then took the spot beside her. “I have the utmost confidence in your ability to master these new powers. After all, I was able to when I first came to L.A. How do you think I’ve gone around all these years without hurting people by accident?”

Her face turned skeptical and the feeling of dread in her stomach lessened. It became easier to breathe again. “You mean you haven’t lost control of yourself and, say, thrown people across rooms or through windows?”

“I wouldn’t call those accidents, exactly. Those people got what they deserved.” He gave a cheeky grin, and to his relief she chuckled in response. At least her humour wasn’t broken.

“What I mean, Detective, is that that power,” Lucifer nodded back towards the broken counter, “is keenly tied to emotion, namely anger or fear. The stronger those emotions, the stronger you become.” He patted her knee with a smile, as if it was good news.

“So, what you’re saying is I just have to keep from getting too angry or fearful and I’ll be fine.”

“Exactly. Easy peasy.”

She gave him a hard look that read ‘This is not easy peasy’ and Lucifer couldn’t help recoiling a bit, suddenly aware that her anger, and therefore her supernatural strength, could be directed towards his very mortal self. 

“I assure you,” he tried instead in what he hoped was a calming tone, “you’ll get the hang of it. I did, after all. In Hell everything was much more…” he stopped to think of a suitable word. “Sturdier. It could stand up to my anger. But here, things are rather flimsy in comparison.”

“Well, I bet things here aren’t built with superpowered fallen angels in mind.”

“They most certainly are not. During my first two months in L.A. I went through two dozen glasses, three corvettes, and a baby grand piano.”

That drew a grin from her. “Three corvettes, really?”

“Bad road rage,” he said simply. “Maze considered never letting me drive again after the third. Ripped the steering wheel right out.”

Finally she laughed, a real laugh, and Lucifer couldn’t help but feel more at ease.

“How were you even able to keep your license?” Chloe asked.

“Oh, I don’t have one.”

All the merriment went out of her face in an instant. “You what?”

“I don’t have a driver’s license.”

Chloe sat straighter and turned to face him fully. “Lucifer, how can you not have a license?”

“I never saw the point in getting one. I mean, I am older than driving itself.”

“How have you not been caught?”

He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Money and charm.”

The frown on her face was impressive, possibly the deepest he had ever seen. Chloe held out her hand towards him. “Keys.”

“Excuse me?”

“Keys, Lucifer. You are not driving without a license anymore, I’m not allowing it.”

“I can drive perfectly fine without one, Detective. You’ve even been my passenger on many occasions.”

Her eyes narrowed. “And now I know you’ve been doing so illegally. No more.”

They stared at each other wordlessly for a couple moments, but Lucifer knew that the Detective wouldn’t budge, so with a deep sigh he dug into his pocket and produced the keys to his car, placing them in Chloe’s hand.

Triumphantly she closed her fingers around them. “You’ll get these back when you have a proper driver’s license. It’s really for your own safety.”

Lucifer frowned. “That’s another thing, Detective, why are you suddenly so concerned with my wellbeing? And don’t say it’s because I’m mortal now, you use to think I was mortal before yet you were fine with me getting into all kinds of perilous situations.”

She rose from the couch, keys in hand, and moved towards a cupboard near the front door. “I don’t know what you mean,” she said, but her tone was weak, the same one she used with her offspring when she was trying not to lie but also trying not to tell the whole truth.

“Do not give me that,” he told her sternly. “You took away my cigarettes and trashed them, now my car keys. I may no longer be immortal, Detective, but I do not need to be mother henned.”

A sigh slipped from her lips as she opened the cabinet’s top door, dropped the keys inside, and closed it. Then she leaned against it, arms crossed across her chest, but she didn’t look at him. “While you were unconscious and we were waiting for you to wake up, Amenadiel told me everything.”

“What ‘everything’?”

“Everything everything,” Chloe replied. “All the things you’ve done to keep me safe. About Malcolm, and your brother Uriel. Everything.”

Now it was Lucifer’s turn to be unable to look at her. He gazed down at his hands that were clasp together between his knees. Between gritted teeth he uttered, “that was not his place to say anything.”

“Well you didn’t tell me,” she retorted. “You didn’t tell me anything at all.”

“I knew it would only cause you grief,” was all he said.

“Well, now I know. And I can’t just act like it was nothing.” She moved back towards the couch and sat down again, taking his white knuckled clasped hands into her own softly. “I don’t know how to express how thankful I am for you protecting me, Lucifer. So I guess I just feel it’s now my turn to protect you.”

Now he looked up to meet her gaze. Her blue eyes were soft and full of caring, and she looked at him in that way she did whenever she came to his rescue, with something so pure and sweet shining in her expression that it always took him by surprise that someone could look at him that way. 

He was suddenly hyperaware of how close she was to him, their knees touching, her soft hands enclosed around his own, the gentle smell of her drugstore brand body wash that somehow smelt sweeter than any expensive, high end soap he had ever known. And her beauty, the sunlight from the window making her hair shine like a halo around her head and causing her eyes to be as blue as the summer sky.

But the moment was shattered as the front door suddenly opened and a shout filled the room.

“Lucifer!”

Suddenly he was smothered by dark hair and pink fabric. Tiny arms wrapped around his neck and threatened to squeeze his breath away.

“I picked up the kid like you asked.” The voice belonged to Maze, but he couldn’t see her around the cloud of dark curls in his face.

“Hello small child,” Lucifer uttered, desperately trying to disentangle himself from the little girl now in his lap. He would never understand Trixie’s infatuation with him, and while a part of him was flattered by her relentless affection, the majority of him was usually horrified by her need to constantly cling to him.

Her face appeared before his own, all round cheeks and large eyes. “Maze didn’t say you would be here!” she said brightly.

“That’s because I didn’t know,” the demon replied. She was suspiciously eyeing Lucifer and Chloe, who had jumped off the couch when her daughter and roommate arrived and was now standing beside the couch and trying to smother a laugh with her hand.

“Are you going to stay for supper?” Trixie asked hopefully. “Or were you and Mommy going to have supper alone?” She said the word “alone” a little more suggestively than a child her age should be able to.

This was Chloe’s signal to swoop in. “Okay, Monkey,” she said, plucking the little girl off Lucifer and setting her on the ground. “Do you have homework?”

“Just a little bit,” was the reply.

“Then go get it started,” Chloe said, steering her daughter towards her bedroom. “I’ll be in in a little bit to help, okay?”

“Okay…” Trixie pouted as she looked back over her shoulder to the others in the living room. She knew she was being sent away so the adults could talk. Lucifer was continually surprised at how perceptive the child was. Just like her mother.

Once the little girl’s room door closed, Maze looked expectantly at the other two. “So what’s going on? Why did you ask me to pick up the brat?” She moved towards the kitchen, searching for a glass to pour herself a drink.

“We were assaulted on a case,” Lucifer supplied as he got up and followed Chloe who followed after Maze.

“That’s nothing new,” the other woman said. She opened the cabinet above the fridge for her secret stash of alcohol, safely away from Trixie’s grasp.

“Well, this was a little different,” Chloe said slowly. 

Maze poured a glass of Jack Daniel’s and leaned against the fridge. “Explain.”

“It might be better to just show you,” Lucifer said. Without asking he grabbed the kitchen knife that sat on the countertop and stabbed Chloe in the shoulder.

Instantly Maze was tossing her drink on the counter and jumping forward protectively as Chloe let out a shout and grasped her shoulder, her face full of shock and expectant pain that never came.

“Lucifer!” Maze growled, “have you lost your mind?”

“Oh, don’t be dramatic,” he said, but to Chloe who was rubbing her shoulder. He then showed the knife to Maze. Not only was it not bloody but the end was bent. “See? Nothing to worry about.”

The demon didn’t say anything, just moved towards Chloe and without a word grabbed her shoulder to inspect it. There was a cut in her shirt’s fabric, but the skin underneath was unblemished.

“Mommy, are you okay?” Trixie’s head was peeking out of her room, a worried expression on her face.

“I’m fine, sweetie,” Chloe answered, waving Maze off her as she smiled sweetly at her daughter. “Mommy just stubbed her toe. Go back to your homework.”

Trixie didn’t say anything in return, just returned to her room with a look that said she wasn’t convinced.

Now Chloe turned to Lucifer, her smile dissolving into annoyance. “You could have given me some warning. I liked this shirt.” She pulled at the new hole for emphasis.

“But where would the fun in that be?” he purred.

“Okay, what is going on here?” Maze demanded. She kept looking back and forth between the two of them, her confusion turning to anger as it often did.

“Chloe,” Lucifer said, waving a hand like he was presenting her, “appears to have my missing immortality. Powers and all.”

Maze crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Not at all,” the Devil replied. He then motioned to the broken bit of counter on the island. “She has my strength, my invincibility, and my ability to charm others into doing what I want.”

“We haven’t tested the desire thing,” Chloe added. “I’m not sure I’m up for that yet. Learning people’s hidden secrets against their will-” she gave a little shutter.

“It’s not against their will,” Lucifer told her as if they had this conversation before. Which they had. “They’ll willingly tell you. It’s almost therapeutic for them.”

“Well maybe I don’t want to know,” the blonde retorted. “To do it on a case is one thing, but to walk up to a random person and ask what their deepest desires are? It seems like a huge invasion of privacy.”

At this point Maze hit the counter with her fist, causing the other two to jump and stop bickering.

“Let me get this straight,” she said darkly, “Lucifer, you’re mortal, and now Chloe is immortal? You’re sure about this?”

“We’ve been doing tests for most of the afternoon,” he replied. “But short of actually trying to kill Chloe to see if she survives, all the tests point to her well and truly having my powers.”

Maze chewed on the inside of her cheek. “Isn’t this just fantastic.”

The three of them were silent for a moment, lost in their own thoughts.

Then Chloe piped up, “how did checking out the scene of the explosion go?”

This caused Maze’s expression to darken even further. She went over what happened, from Amenadiel not feeling anything but she experience the urge to flee from the place as fast a she could, to their conversation during the car ride back.

“Now Amenadiel is trying to track down one of your siblings to talk to,” the demon told Lucifer. “But he thinks it’s going to take a while.”

“I imagine so,” Lucifer said. “Fallen angels aren’t exactly loved by the angelic hoard.”

“Do you think it’s true about your Mother?” Chloe asked. “Do you think she could be behind this?”

To this Lucifer rubbed both hands over his face, suddenly feeling tired. “I honestly do not have the faintest idea of what is going on right now.”

*

Amenadiel sat kneeling on the floor of his office. It was smaller than the one he had used when he was trying to get information on Lucifer, but he didn’t mind. With the afternoon turning into evening the halls outside were growing quiet and he didn’t expect to be interrupted.

It didn’t take long as a fallen angel to find that he needed an income. Lucifer offered to pay for all his expenses, but he refused. Really, taking charity from the Devil was a low he could not stoop to no matter how well his and Lucifer’s relationship had been patched up. So all that was left was to find a job he could actually do, given that he had no history of working.

It was Linda who had found the perfect job, bless her, and now he was a professor of theology at a local college. Really, what better person to teach than someone who had been there? There were some problems, of course, since what was written in the Bible and what really happened did not always coincide, but he was getting better at not going on long rants about the sections that were incorrect.

But now he was using his office for something else: trying to contact one of his siblings. He had moved his desk and the couple of chairs against the walls, giving him room to kneel in the center, head bowed, a bit of frankincense smoldering in an incense burner next to him, rosary dangling from his wrist as his hands were pressed together in prayer. 

Earlier he had tried to cast a quiet, simple prayer to the sky for the angels to visit him but no one came. Now he hoped that this more elaborate ceremony would catch someone’s attention, anyone, but he had been waiting for an hour and a half to no avail and his legs had fallen asleep.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, Amenadiel thought to himself. Who would answer the call of a fallen angel? I’m sure everyone despises me.

He decided he would give it five more minutes. At least he could tell Maze he tried.

“Oh brother dear,” a voice said, “you just don’t give up, do you?”

Amenadiel looked up to see a woman standing before him. Black hair in a pixie cut, skin a soft brown, eyes dark but playful, wearing the grey robes of the angels. Her hands were on her hips and she smirked down at him.

“Sariel,” he said, his voice a little hoarse from not being used for a couple hours. “I didn’t think anyone would come.”

“Oh, no one was supposed to,” his sister told him. “Orders from on high. We were told to leave you and Lucifer to your mess. But you know me, I got a soft spot for my big bro.” She leaned down and gave him a light punch in the arm.

“What mess?” Amenadiel asked. He tried to stand up but nearly fell over since his legs, completely numb, refused to hold him up.

Sariel caught him quickly and with ease. Carefully she helped him hobble over to his desk and let him sit on the edge of it. “The whole Lucifer-turned-mortal mess.”

“So you all know about it?” 

His sister laughed. Sariel had always been one of the more easy going angels, quick to merriment. “Oh, it’s hilarious. We’re not supposed to interfere but we still watch. Make sure Lucifer keeps kicking for at least three more months.”

“Why?” he questioned. “What happens in three months?”

“Oh, I’m not forseeing anything,” Sariel clarified, “some of us just have a pool going on how long Lucifer will manage to survive as a mortal. I called three months, so just do me a solid and make sure he doesn’t kick the bucket before then.”

Amenadiel frowned. “So nice to see you all are so concerned with his wellbeing.”

“Come on, Amenadiel.” She gave him a playful shove. “It wasn’t that long ago that you were trying to get him killed yourself.”

“That was different. That was to get him back to Hell.”

Sariel just shrugged in response, as if she didn’t see the difference.

He decided to change gears, knowing that his sister would never see his way of thinking. “Speaking of Hell, who is watching over it right now?”

“Hmm,” Sariel tapped her chin with a long finger, thinking. “There’s not exactly anyone “watching over it.” Since you flew off, we take shifts guarding the boarder. I think Muriel and Grigori are currently on duty. Maybe Dumah.”

“You’re just guarding the boarder?”

“Mmm hmm,” she nodded her head. “Usually in twos or threes. It’s terribly boring.”

“But no one goes inside?” Amenadiel asked. He had a bad, sinking feeling in his gut. “So you don’t know what’s going on within Hell?”

“Nope.” Sariel smiled brightly, as if the idea was very pleasing. “Nobody’s gone in since Azrael returned Mom. Nice job getting that done, by the way.”

But he didn’t take notice of the compliment, he was too busy trying to piece together the situation in Hell currently. “So all the souls down there, all the creatures that have been locked up for centuries, they could be running rampant within Hell?”

“Oh, they probably are,” she said flippantly. “The inmates have taken over the asylum.”

“What’s keeping them from escaping, then?”

“The angels who guard the boarder,” Sariel said, her tone sounding like she thought he was dense.

“How is that enough? How has nothing escaped?”

“Oh, there have been escapes,” she assured him. “We’ve managed to get most of them back, hunting them is actually pretty fun, but the odd one has gotten away.”

Amenadiel put his face in his hands, feeling a bit of panic rising in his chest. This was worse than he imagined. “How is it that this has been allowed to carry on like this?”

“Well, let’s see,” Sariel began, her face suddenly going cold. “The one in charge of Hell, Lucifer, took off. Then the one put in charge of Hell after him, you, also took off. We who are left are doing our best to control this mess, but only Lucifer has the power needed to put everything right. You left to bring him back, but you failed. It’s just as much your fault as it is the rest of us.”

He wanted to argue, but she was right. He was given a duty, to watch over Hell until Lucifer returned, but he abandoned it due to his selfishness. It was the delusion that he was too good to watch over Hell, too important for such a demeaning task, so he had left to try and force Lucifer to return instead of doing the job that was given to him. And look how that had turned out.

Still, after spending time with Lucifer and on Earth, he had come to see that his brother was right to abdicate his throne. He didn’t deserve to be stuck in Hell as much as Amenadiel didn’t. But that begged the question: who did?

“So,” Amenadiel started slowly, “you’re saying that it’s possible that something could have escaped Hell, something powerful enough transform Lucifer into a mortal?”

“Oh, for sure,” Sariel said, her merriment returning to her eyes. “But that’s not what you all should be concerned about.”

He looked at her, at her smirk, and was sure that she took some enjoyment out of his and Lucifer’s misery. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t you feel it?” She closed her eyes, smiling while it seemed she was trying to listen to something far away. 

For a moment Amenadiel shut his eyes as well, trying to reach out and feel whatever it was that his sister was referring to. But he felt nothing, and he opened his eyes with a frown.

As if she knew he had failed, Sariel said, eyes still closed, “they’re coming.”

“Will you please stop sounding so cryptic?” he asked. He was really starting to regret praying for a sibling to come to him.

“You’re no fun sometimes, bro,” she told him and opened to eyes to look at him fiercely. “The monsters are coming. All the ones that stayed away while Lucifer was powerful. They can sense that the King is no more, and they’re coming to lay claims on his territory.”


End file.
